By Kate Hodges
05th September 2019
MAKE and DO Crazy Colour
Wring the most out of the summer and try some outdoor painting projects. Encourage kids to use their whole bodies and get messy – hand and foot painting is such sense-tickling fun. Or try using outside space to create large-scale shadow art. Painting outside can be as messy as you like – use water pistols, trikes, bikes or even catapults to make masterpieces! Alternatively, beautify something – flower pots, fence posts and sheds or even your car!
EVENT Cycle Of Life
This year’s Tour of Britain sees some of the best cyclists in the world speeding through the stunning scenery of Scotland and the north of England. The race starts on September 3 in Glasgow, winds through the Borders, Berwick, Newcastle, Gateshead, Kendal, the Wirral, Pershore, Warwick, Burton Dassett, and finishes with an Altrincham to Manchester leg on the 14th. As well as watching the riders swish by, expect hundreds of roadside events, live music, pedal-themed parties and chances to scope out the latest in cycle tech. Take your gang along, and be inspired to get your two-wheelers out this autumn.
RECIPE Bilberry Bagging
It’s a bounteous time of year for foragers – fruits, berries and nuts are hanging thick on trees. Take a walk in the countryside and see what you can find; bilberries to make jam, jelly, tea, fruit leather or cakes – try this recipe for traditional bilberry pie or this campfire bilberry jam. Or perhaps you’ll find some spiky-cased beechnuts – eat them straight from the forest floor, fry them and make nibblers, beechnut butter, use the leaves to make beech and pine tea, or go experimental and make alcoholic noyaux and nocino!
EVENT Plastic Population
The incredible Totally Thames festival continues to flow this week, with a high-energy street performance warning of the dangers of plastic pollution. French street theatre legends Générik Vapeur and flying trapeze experts Gorilla Circus will perform daring high wire stunts and aerial tricks across the heart of London’s financial district, which will be transformed into a representation of the giant rubbish dump in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Free, Saturday 7 at Cheapside Junction or King Street.
MAKE Soap Nuts
The first conkers have hit the streets (literally). This year, as well as playing with them, using them for crafts, or to scare off spiders (more on that here), we fancy using them to make a gentle soap alternative. There’s a recipe here and another here.
